POONCH: The responsible department from Poonch as well as Shopian side has begun snow clearance operation on the historic Mughal road, connecting Poonch-Rajouri districts with Kashmir valley, in order to open the road for vehicular movement. According to official sources, the road clearance project began a few days ago on the Shopian side and has cleared some kilometres above Dubjan. The road was also cleared up to the Poshana Army check post, and yesterday saw the start of ongoing, full-scale work to clear the snow from that point on. The sources added that although the road-clearing exercise was scheduled to take place, the Poonch and Shopian administrations, through their DCs with the concerned Mechanical Department, have begun snow-clearing work on the Mughal road, which was closed on January 26 of this year, in anticipation of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, particularly given the topography of the Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha Constituency. Enough large equipment has already been placed in place to have the route open as soon as feasible. Farooq Nazki, SDM Surankote, has been permitted to oversee this activity in the meantime. He inspected the route and is keeping a careful eye on the snow removal operation. According to Shoket Ali, Executive Engineer, PW(R&B) Deptt. Surankote, workers and equipment have been sent out to clear the road as soon as possible. Work is proceeding at full speed, and assuming the weather holds out, the snow should be removed by the end of the month.
